Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-02-10
Southwark Ho,


The schedule time of the train to leave
there was 1880 a. IN, but two hours
later found the train naonkeying around
among the switches OF Birds Point,
just across the river from Cairo.
knew that our only hope of making
connection at Brinkley was to leave on
time. and wished the managers of the
Cotton Belt SO far into the equatorial
regions of the Dark Continent that
Stanley couldn't find them while con-
tinued to be a railroad traveller Though
we were more than two hours behind
time, not the slightest effort was made
to make it up, and we rode leisurely
along through the heavily timbered river
bottom and the cypress swamps of the
southeastern corner of Missouri and the
magnificent forests of northeastern Ar
kansas. AS long as daylight lasted we
could see snow on the ground.
About midnight we reached Brinkley,
where must take the Memphis & Little
Rock road. AS / expected, that train
had gone by an hour before Every
place was shut up tight and fell an
easy prey to the pompous negro porter
of the new ''frst-class" hotel and its
aristocratic prices. Then / raised up
my voice and gave the managers of the
Cotton Belt" road my last and sultriest
blessing. May their trains ever be as
empty as the one came down on, and
let their road r. j. p, which is Latin
and stands for reQuiescat in pace. If
l had taken the Iron Mountain road
would have been in Little Rock twelve
hours before l reached Brinkley and
saved at least 81 so in hotel bills.
The next forenoon l looked about the
town and thought 1t might be good
place to invest in lots, until was told
that it was pretty much owned and
wholly controlled by the owner of the
big saw-mill, who didn't love new
Corners who couldn't be controlled by
him. This man, it is said, came there
with $500 six years ago, and is now
millionaire, by his business tack COM
bined with the sublimest cheek and
hoggishness.
] talked considerably with the editor
of the local paper. He is a fine large
talker for one so young and apparently
so unsophisticatcd. He is not, as |
half expected, newly fedged Methodist
minister, but his brother is one of sew
eral years practice. The brother had
run that paper few years ago, when
/ was man-of-all- on another paper
about forty miles down the road The
| editor-preacher came down one day and
snapped lies with us. He was a large
and liberal trader who rocked not of
boot or odds in exchanging his mag
nifcent thoroghbreds for our little
scrubs. According to one of his most
unpretentious yarns, his foreman was
a daisy who could set a painful of
solid BREWER in five minutes. made a
little calculation and found that at that
rate and at Little Rock prices that fore
man could earn $l2a day, As he was
getting only 80 or $40 a week, the dis
crepancy between what was and what
| might have been seemed unaccountably
large, but l didn't mention it to the
preacher, for it might have seemed like
cold and worldly lack of faith in me.
The ride from Brindley to Little Rock
is one that wrote up for the HERALD
last winter, so will mention but one
thing on it: the factory, at Duvars Bluff,
where the road crosses White River.
Here ash timber is worked into oars and
the smaller pieces into broom-handles,
etc. The market for the oars is largely
in London and Paris. They are shipped
on barges down White River and the
Mississippi to New Orleans, thus having
the advantage of water transportation
clear to the European market. There
is place and material in Arkansas for
hundreds more such factories.
When our train arrived at the Union
depot in Little Rock we found the train
on the Iron Mountain road waiting and
Immediately took it. 1t was crowded
to the utmost capacity. My immediate
destination was Hot Springs, but as l
have recently written up that place for
the HERALD, shall close here. Later
may write some letters on the state
of Arkansas in general.
G. N HoIFORD